News & Events

As I step down from my role as Metropolitan Council Chair this month, I find myself reflecting on an extraordinary tenure that has fundamentally reshaped not only our organization, but our entire region's future.

This month the Metropolitan Council awarded grants to 11 cities in the seven-county region.

Visitors sniffed to identify different odors, challenged themselves with a wastewater trivia quiz, and posed with the big pile of fabricated poop at the Minnesota State Fair.

Cities, counties, and townships in the seven-county Twin Cities region will be getting a multitude of support from the Metropolitan Council as they begin to update their local comprehensive plans.

This fall, the Metropolitan Council will roll out an impressive array of data, tools, and other resources to support counties, cities, and townships as they begin the process of visioning the future of their communities and updating their local comprehensive plans.

The Met Council’s overall wholesale charge to cities and townships for collecting and treating wastewater will go up 5.8% in 2026, following Met Council action on July 23.

The Met Council joined with the Mississippi River Institute and Hamline University to provide continuing education training for 50 teachers at the Metropolitan Water Resource Recovery Facility.

People continue to treasure regional parks and trails in the seven-county metro region, making an estimated 65.7 million visits in 2024.

The Met Council has added two staff positions to its Environmental Services division to engage staff with Minnesota’s 11 federally recognized Tribal Nations and Native residents across the metro area.

The Metropolitan Council has awarded more than $2.4 million in Livable Communities grants to investigate and remediate contaminated sites across five Twin Cities communities.

The Met Council has approved $2.5 million in Community Tree Planting grants to 14 cities and agencies to plant more than 5,100 new trees and remove over 2,200 diseased or hazardous trees.
 

Dozens of efforts have been completed or are under way to reduce the Met Council’s greenhouse gas emissions and make our services and facilities resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The Metropolitan Council recently awarded seven cities with grants totaling nearly $210,000 that will expand access to water conservation opportunities to underserved communities.

Two of the nation’s leading credit rating services have once again assigned their highest possible ratings to the Metropolitan Council, continuing an unbroken streak that began in 1989.
 

Good news on the safety and security front on transit in our region: Both riders and operators are feeling safer on Metro Transit buses and trains than they did a year ago.